Prospect news from the Sault

According to Sault This Week's Randy Russon, Red Wings prospect Zack Torquato is working on improving the two biggest knocks against him in physical strength and a lack of skating speed:

June 25, Sault This Week: Sault Ste. Marie's Zack Torquato is working out in anticipation of the Detroit Red Wings' annual development camp, which is slated for July 6-13 at Joe Louis Arena.

The Red Wings are reportedly happy with the progress Torquato showed during the '07-08 season. The 1989 birth year centre netted 25 goals in 66 games with the Ontario Hockey League's Erie Otters before joining the Grand Rapids Griffins of the American Hockey League for 11 games and scoring his first professional goal.

Torquato, who just turned 19 earlier this month, was the Red Wings' sixth-round pick at the '07 National Hockey League Draft. A skilled, smart player, Torquato's drawback is his skating, which needs to be improved if he's going to eventually play at the NHL level. The upcoming '08-09 season will be Torquato's fourth in the OHL. He has scored 74 goals through his first three OHL seasons

Russon gives the Wings' selection of Thomas McCollum a thumbs-up as well:

June 25, Sault This Week: I like the Detroit Red Wings' selection of Guelph Storm goalie Thomas McCollum in the first round of Saturday's Draft. McCollum is rangy, moves quickly from post to post, has a great glove hand and can handle a heavy workload. Or simply, as Red Wings director of amateur scouting Joe McDonnell told me after making McCollum his first round pick: "He's a big kid who moves really well in the net."

To be sure, it is the ability of McCollum to play well and often that led Guelph to deal its second goalie, Cody St. Jacques, to the [Soo] Greyhounds earlier this month. To be sure, you can say that the Hounds benefited from McCollum's stature in that it made St. Jacques available.

Interestingly, McCollum went from being undrafted by the OHL to being a first-round pick of the NHL in the space of two years. Meantime, as a 1989 birth year, McCollum has at least another season to develop in Guelph. And as a '90, St. Jacques has two seasons ahead of him in the Soo, not including a potential overage campaign.

Both the Wings and Tampa Bay Lightning were eying Nick Perlini in March, but his name was passed over on Friday and Saturday. Russon says that's not necessarily a bad thing:

Those changing ways of the NHL Draft are good news for a kid like Sault Ste. Marie's Brett Perlini. The 1990 birth year centre was rated as a possible late-round selection at Saturday's NHL Draft but ended up being bypassed, most likely because he spent the '07-08 season in the lower-rung Northern Ontario Jr. Hockey League. No offense to the NOJHL or to the Soo Thunderbirds but my guess is that NHL teams decided to wait and see how Perlini stacks up against opponents in the Division 1 Central Collegiate Hockey Association in '08-09 as a freshman with the Michigan State Spartans.

The way I see it, Perlini remains in a win-win situation. He still has two years to be drafted into the NHL and instead of having three seasons of OHL eligibility (including an overage term) with the Greyhounds remaining, he's got four years to develop at Michigan State. Plus, there's the matter of the free education that he'll receive at prestigious Michigan State, which when you add it up, is worth a cool $35,000 a year.

Still, Perlini was disappointed at not being drafted this year and I don't blame him. Various NHL scouts were out to watch him play during the '07-08 season, in particular Sault Ste. Marie's Angelo Bumbacco, who works for the Tampa Bay Lightning. The 75-year old Bumbacco made no secret of the fact that he thought Perlini had "an excellent chance" of being taken at Saturday's Draft and even requested game tapes of the lanky centre that he could show to his Tampa bosses last week. But despite the fact that Bumbacco said he was pushing for Perlini and despite the fact that Tampa had two picks in each of the last two rounds (sixth and seventh) of Saturday's Draft, nothing materialized.